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Of Fire (Fifth Book of Elita) by Kate Jacoby check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.katejacoby.com
Just as in some other genres, fantasy seems to have developed a number of clichés that have coalesced to become a formula. Jacoby's work contains most of them. Fantasies frequently run to trilogies or, more precisely, a vast volume that has been sliced into marketable chunks to maximise profit.
In the worst kind, they appear to have been cut when the requisite number of pages
has been reached even if it is midway through a sentence. Jacoby ends each, except
the last, with a climax and cliff-hanger which leaves the reader wanting the next
volume. This approach creates problems in that it makes it difficult to begin
reading part way through the series. To help overcome the problem, 'Trial Of Fire'
is prefaced with a résumé disguised as an extract from a book called
'The Secret History Of Lusara'. Fantasy needs magic. Often, sorcery is misunderstood in the same way that witchcraft was in earlier centuries in Britain. Sorcery and witchcraft are banned because the untalented are scared of what they do not understand. Their practitioners are hounded and killed. They hide their skills in Jacoby's novels. Most of her sorcerers are hidden away in the Enclave, protected by a device called the Key. Robert Douglas, the hero and a sorcerer,
is out fomenting rebellion as he wishes to free his country, Lusara, from the
tyranny of King Kenrick. As sorcery can, like so many things, be used as a force
for good or evil there has to be a villain. This is Nash, Kenrick's chief advisor.
Nash wants the Key. He also wants Robert Douglas dead. He has no scruples, having
already caused his daughter's death and used her blood to rejuvenate his body.
We can reasonably expect a confrontation between the two. While Nash has no redeeming features, Robert is full of doubts. A prophecy is always useful and Robert was given one as a child. He was told that he would destroy the thing that he loves most. Robert assumes this is Jennifer Ross, someone he has long refused admitting to love. She, on the other hand, has refused to tell him that he is the father of her son, partly because it will make him angry that she has deceived him and because it would upset his plans to put the boy, Andrew, on the throne in place of Kenrick. Thus, we have a scenario reminiscent of the
Mills & Boon romantic novels, only lasting for a quintet of volumes. Robert
and Jenn are so much in love that they keep forcing themselves apart by silly
misunderstandings and misguided notions of self-sacrifice. In fact, this gets
tiresome as both are behaving childishly. Neither is prepared to sit down and
talk to the other but prefer to jump to conclusions. This is a big problem with
Robert's character in general. He is portrayed as a charismatic leader but he
is wilful and doesn't listen - a trait which drives most of the plot. Then
there is the obligatory quest. Initially, there is a fairly subtle underlying
one - the search for a lost object known as the Calyx. This is believed to hold
the knowledge that will unlock the Key. This is found by accident in volume 4,
'Rebel's Cage'. Then there is Patric's quest overseas to find out more about the
history of the prophecy. He returns in 'Trial Of Fire' with some of the information
needed to understand the unfolding events. Robert, too, has a quest or crusade:
to free Lusara from tyranny and make Andrew the country's new king. The fact that
Andrew does not want this is irrelevant. There will have to be revelations,
such as the secret of Andrew's parentage, although the reader will have been aware
of this since his conception. There will be fighting and winning against the odds.
Robert, amongst other things, is a superb swordsman and there are a number of
small fights as well as the prospect of a pitched battle between the rebels and
the king's army. 'Trial Of Fire' is the culmination of all these elements. At the end of 'Rebel's Cage', the Calyx and the Key were fused and the protection the Enclave had enjoyed for five hundred years evaporated. Nash now knows where to finds the Key and sets out after it, thus everyone has to leave. Robert,
Jenn and a small group of others manage to mask the Key and take it to a new hiding
place. This becomes the signal for the rebellion to begin. For the
most part, the series is formulaic and predictable but provided you are prepared
to suspend critical values and run with it, it is an enjoyable romp. The only
real mistake is the epilogue. It is unnecessary and adds nothing to what had preceded
it. Pauline Morgan
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OTHER REVIEWS - October 2004
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There
are a large number of reasons why this series - of which 'Trial Of Fire' is the
fifth and final one - should not work. It is a tribute to Kate Jacoby's skill
as a writer and story-teller that it does.
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